Pokemon: From the Begging
by Neil Fitchner
Summary: What should have happened at the begging of POkemon the Movie 2000-to find out more read it!


Introduction  
  
I've always thought there was something wrong with "Pokemon the Movie 2000: The Power of One" apart from a ridiculously long title and what film critics thought of it. Lets face it: in most Pokemon fan's opinions this is the best Pokemon movie. You all know what's good about it so I won't tell you what's in it but what's left out of it. We really see no motivation for why Lawrence III (the guy who wanted to collect all four legendary birds) wants to capture Lugia apart from the fact that he collects Pokemon. His personality always felt to me like it just didn't exist. He's there to cause trouble and to fulfil the prophecy about Ash saving the world. Its clear that what drives everyone else is saving our planet but Lawrence felt unfinished. This is my attempt to put this right and I've added some stuff about Lugia and Slowking as well. Basically this is a prologue to "The Power of One" and hopefully it makes more sense of some of the film. Oh I don't know.just read it.  
  
I don't own Pokemon.you know the rest.  
From the Begging  
"Disturb not the titans of Fire, Ice and Thunder least they reap destroy the earth. Though the water's great Guardian shall come to calm the Titans but alone its song will fail and thus the world will turn to Ash. Oh chosen one bring into thy hands all three, together their treasures combined tame the beast of the sea." From "The Great Titans, Book I of the Ancient Pokemon Legends"  
  
It was so beautiful that Lawrence the Third had to hold himself back from actually touching it. Of course to touch it he would have to remove it from the display case which might have stopped him, epically considering the secretly system the gallery had. Still the temptation was a vast, incredible thing. To just reach out and touch it.heaven. Lawrence closed his eyes for a moment and imagined it, a grin on his face but he knew he wouldn't dare do it. Touching it risked damaging it and not only was it such a beautiful delicate thing but it had shaped his personality over the last twelve years. It is sacrilege to touch such a thing unless actually necessary. Unless you had a real reason for doing so other than longing. So he just looked at it, his hand behind his back, his eyes almost fill with love. Actually love. It was just a piece of card, small enough to fit into his perfectly normal sized palm but the colours of the picture on it! The detail of the background! It shined with what looked like small crystals. That was because it was a Shiny, rare type Pokemon Trading Card Game card, as he well knew. He had studied such things. This tiny piece of.art! that belong in a gallery like, well this one now, was a masterpiece beyond those of Picasso, van Gogh and Rembrandt. Other collectors had galleries of such painter's work but Lawrence had the only gallery of true greatness. Only he could appreciate such things it seemed. It was an injustice worthy of being taken to court but there it was. Only he could see this card's beauty. It depicted a Pokemon, Mew as it was identified above the picture in black letters, which looked like a half cat, half human. It was pink with a cat's pointed ears, tail, feet and sculpture of the face yet it also had arms and hands and a human intelligence in its eyes that is so hard to capture in aesthetics. The background showed clouds, a rainbow in startlingly clear colours that seemed almost real to him and another Pokemon, like this Mew, called Charizards. The Charizard flew behind the Mew and was equally perfect but smaller despite the bulk he knew it had in real life. It was obvious far away from Mew. Lawrence didn't know how long he continued to just stare at it but he wouldn't care even if he did know. He was Lawrence the Third, owner of the floating island in which he now stood, owner of this magnificent gallery and the even more magnificent artworks in it and the many other ornate rooms of this flying fortress and if he wanted to spent days in here then he damned well would! No one could stop him and beside the masterpiece of the card.ecstasy. Only the cool, unattached voice of his fortress' computer system relaying a message to him from hidden speakers in the gallery interrupted him. Only this would be enough to tare him away from the card. "Titians identified" that unemotional female voice said and Lawrence was instantly transported back into the real world, the gleam in his eyes gone. Now they were calculating eyes, cold as the computer system's voice. It was such a simple message but it told him so much. This meant that the "Titians" the Ancient Pokemon Legends volumes spoke of could be his. It was clear they were Pokemon but unless he knew exactly which ones they were, his DNA scanning system on the outside of the islands couldn't find them and track them so he could never posses them. He had his suspicions but he had to know for sure. Now the creatures could be his. Another magnificent object for Lawrence the Third's Great Gallery! On other days his tall, slim form in its elegant, slightly anachronistic clothes had strolled slowly through the gallery examining each specimen of this section, the one reserved for images of Pokemon. There were others which contained actually Pokemon also existed. Normally he might even admire the long gallery itself, with its Italian high-ceilinged, Renaissance as well as the items in the display cases themselves but now he had work to do and now he hurried through the room and through others too. As well as a fortress the floating island also served as his elegant, mansion-like home. However he soon passed through the dinning hall, the other galleries and the long corridors with bedrooms etc.leading of from them and into a room on the far side of the island. This room was simply grey painted and featureless but with the one most important feature of the island in its center. A chair, simple, grey coloured and metallic in contrast to the soft wood of all the rooms he'd go through to get here. The chair had a very thick pipe moving on from it which could move it up out of the room through a perfectly- sized, round hole in the ceiling. He sat on it and pressed the button on the right armrest (he was right handed) and was soon moving up out of the style of the part of the island he lived in and into the working area which matched the room he was now ascending from. The chair rose to stop at floor level of a vast, modern control room line of computer banks. Directly before him was a holographic 3-D display that looked like a chess set, another speaker which the computer could talk to him through and a large screen showing what was directly behind it. The space in front of the island. The display had four pieces on it. Three grey, unfinished stone blocks on a featureless landscape divided into small squares. The fourth piece was a model of the outside of his island or rather a 3D representation of a model. Lawrence was getting closer now although not a physical way. Closer to the capturing the Titans. Now he just had to say the word and a chain of events leading to their capture would begin. Again simple words. "Computer: report progress on the Titan Investigation" Lawrence the Third said.  
  
The Mew card really had shaped his life. In a way the entire idea, the entire style, of the island had begun with it. It had not only been the first item in his collection but by just deciding to make collecting cards a hobby he began to create his life as Lawrence the Collector. He'd had such a passion for collecting the cards that he soon became world famous with one of the highest counts of card possible. He'd gotten at least one copy of every single one within six years and that was, as anyone who owned Pokemon trading cards knew, a very unusual and prestigious achievement. By the time he was thirty he was the owned the world's largest Pokemon card collection but he also owned the largest pile of unwanted cards which he already had another copy of in the world. The cards were still just a spare time thing until then whilst as a day job he tried to keep a small internet business afloat but when he finally obtained the last Pokemon card needed to own them all, over one thousand different cards, he hit on the idea of selling the unwanted spare copies. It was agony to part with them but a small price to pay because selling so many cards made him a millionaire. The only problem was he now had money and cards and needed a new obsession. Needed it like a junkie needed.well drugs. His life was empty unless he had a vast and daunting task ahead of him. He needed a purpose so he built the island and started collecting actual, live Pokemon and he was happy again. Happy but so far out of his mind that he no longer view anything, particularly not Pokemon, as anything but something to own. He was now insane and only capable of felling the emotion of pride in his collection about anything. If he wasn't about that he felt nothing. Now he was about to collect the three Titans but he had no idea exactly how bad an effect this would have not on his world but on the world. The planet Earth.  
  
From the outside the island was a large metal structure shaped like the grid of the 3D display its pilot concentrated on. Laser firing weapons turrets covered the grid and on top of it was a series of square oblongs, which one small than the last, which on resting on top of the last. The base of the grid had a hole in it through which the blast from the series of massive engines, all pointing downwards, attached to the bottommost oblong, could burn. These engines kept the island moving above the Earth in whatever direction its pilot chose. It now hovered over the island of Kato where it had been stationed whilst the computer gathered historical evidence about the Titans from its massive, in-built library to determine what they were. This was another collection. A repository of information as grand and complete as the rest of his collections but it him this collection was just a tool. It and the defence and navigation system of the craft used over half the space of the island but this space was filled only with a means to an end. One of the greatest engineers on Earth had built it for Lawrence for an unbelievably huge amount of money but the engineer and the money were just the means to and end. That end was now coming.  
  
"All data gathered. Records confirm that the Titan of Fire is the legendary Pokemon Moltres, the Titan of Ice is ice Pokemon Articuno and the Titan of Thunder is Zapdos," the computer told Lawrence in response to his instructions. As the computer said the Pokemon's names the unfinished blocks on the chessboard turned into images of the Pokemon. Lawrence knew they would and would soon see them anyway so he didn't watch this. He watched the speaker instead to give the computer's voice some sort of body. He was such a fool! He should have given the computer some sort of an appearance. Well no one was perfect not even someone far beyond just a human being like all the rest. Someone like him beyond all those idiots beneath him. Not even he was perfect but damn he was close! Maybe his physical body wasn't magnificent although it was still young and certainly fit. He worked out in his gym on the island for exercise. The gym inside one of the oblongs that, of course, contained the human elements of the island. The human and the place he lived and worked.  
  
Now it was time for the important news. "And the fourth Titan? The "Water's Great Guardian?" "Lugia, the Legendary Pokemon of water." This was the real news. A Pokemon so rare that no one in history had ever gazed upon it. It would be his! He was elated thinking of the glory of it and for just a moment sad that it would mean another collection was complete. At only thirty-six he would have to find a third lifetime's goal. "And Alexander wept when he saw there were no more worlds to conquer" he sadly quoted aloud to himself. Snap out of it! He told himself. First capture the other three legendary birds then worry about the rest. Yes, that was his goal. The other three birds. "Which one is closest?" The red coloured bird on the display move from its position in the center of the board towards a position of its east a few spaces away from the island in the middle of the south of the board. "Moltres, the bird of fire. It is located over Fire Island in the Orange Islands. Geographical features formed on the display. Several small island and three big ones, on top of one of which was the red bird model. "Set course for Moltres. How long will the journey take?" "Seventeen minutes and forty six seconds till the bird's most likely location at such a time." "Good. Begin the journey now." Lawrence looked at his watch. Seventeen minutes till he could catch the bird. Seventeen minutes till the party started! "So this chess match begins," he said, studying the board. He felt the island move beneath his feet and very slowly due to the island's speed and the board's size, the 3D model of the island began to move towards Fire Island. The computer had checked in seconds the most likely outcomes of everything the bird might do, of any number of probabilities and come up with the most likely one. Less than eighteen minutes and he would achieve what no other being in history had ever done. He would actually have to capture it but one of the many obsessions of his life had been chess, the one just before Pokemon card collecting in fact and he KNEW he was a master strategist. Capturing the bird would be easier than the taxing wait he had endured to find the Titan. He needed music for the occasion. "Computer play.Wagner's 'The Ride of the Valkyries'" The music began to play and it was perfect for the situation. Everything was just.perfect. Perfect was the perfect word for it. "Ah Wagner.a genius. Its as if this piece was written because he sense this great moment in the future which I would have." As the music continued Lawrence contemplated the last few words of the legend as he had done before in equal confusion to that he felt now. That last line had always jarred for some reason with him despite the fact it made perfect sense. Something about it was just not right but he couldn't put is finger on it. ".Thus the world shall turn to Ash." He put it out of his mind. This was not the way to solve the mystery but neither was any other way he tried. He sighed. There was nothing to do now but sit and wait and listen to the music. No problems. Everything was perfect. His long, thin fingers twirl slightly in tune to the music as he listened to it and he was supremely happy. This was what made his life worth living. Anticipation.  
  
The floating island, what a spectral! Lawrence could see it in his minds eye, approached the rocky cliffs of Fire Island. It was time to use the weapons turrets. "Computer activate Ice turret mode. Fire at the cliffs" Lawrence ordered. Several of the turrets swung towards the cliffs from their usual stationary position and fired beams of ice that coated the island. Lawrence knew this would awake Moltres and that it would then blast its way using fire from its mouth to see what was causing the cliffs to turn to ice. The bird he knew would sense the change. He was right and soon the ice melted and Moltres burst through the cliff. It was a large bird, close to Lawrence's own size as a tall adult human, and most of it was coloured yellow but it had red and grey on its wings, the tips of which seem to be made of a living, breathing fire. "Its almost as magnificent as Mew. Now fire laser. Tire it out." The computer obeyed. Moltres dogged the laser but was soon tired. "Nets" Lawrence said simply. Three very small poles attached to each other to form a triangle shape with a strange, lightning like energy in the center flew out of the two of the turrets so there were two triangles. They shot to Moltres and grew larger until they could contain it then they did just that. The Moltres was too tired to fight or dodge and longer. Now a large square hole opened in the island and the bird captured in the triangle disappeared into it. It closed again. It was his! Lawrence the Third now owned owned! A Moltres. He thought the temptation to go down and examine it immediately. He had work to do. "Checkmate" Lawrence said as we saw the Moltres model disappear into the island model. "The next closest?" he asked the computer. "Articuno, located at Ice Island" "Very well. Journey time?" "Fourteen minutes and thirty two seconds till the bird's most likely location at such a time." "Excellent. Proceed."  
  
It would be even easier this time he thought. All he had to do was replace ice with fire. "Time to capture the next Titan and Articuno after that. Then.then the game gets interesting" he said then almost whispered "Lugia."  
  
Underneath the ocean of the islands a large white bird with a long tail and stylish ridges on its tail, back and head sensed what was happening above. Sense that the events it had waited underwater, unmoving, for over the last few centuries were occurring. So Lugia, the white underwater Pokemon, had sensed and now it must act. It hoped they would never happen but now it seemed inevitable and so the bird like Pokemon had awakened. It moved, floated, slowly to the surface of the water then spread its wings and flew. It had a lot of things to take care of. Many legends had been written about the deeds it must do on the day when those events it waited for happened and all of them were true.  
  
A stone tablet with the ancient legend that Lugia and Lawrence were so concerned with rested on the exact center of a oblong shaped stone block with perfectly smooth edges which itself stood in the center of a stone circle of a massive stone slab on the top of a mountain in the Orange Islands. Apart from this there was only a large cave in the mountain to form the part of Slowking's domain he could get to but he was proud of it. His Kingdome! Only a mountain with a hole on it and a stone circle built not by him but by human long ago but still his Kingdome! There was no one to dispute it. Slowking was the king of Water Island of the orange Islands. Slowking himself stood in that cave now and watched what was beyond it. As if nature had made them both in sync with each other he had sense at the same time Lugia had that the legend of the four Titans was coming true and had know exactly what to do. The difference was Slowking could only stand and watch whilst he waited for the others to get here before he could begin. He sighed. "Disturb not the Titans of Fire, Ice and Thunder" he quoted in his deep, resounding voice. It began to rain, an unprecedented event at this time of year in the normally warm and tropical southern Orange Islands (as opposed to those in north where it seemed to rain constantly.) This was now the rainy season but in fact the driest time for the southern islands and he knew this rain was the begging of the end. "Oh what a mess" he said and he knew it would get worse.  
  
All over the Hoenn, Kanto, Johoto and the Orange Islands every Pokemon in every location sensed the same thing and knew also that if they could do something they would. They all, thousands of them, began to move, if uncoordinatedly, towards the closest point they could get to Slowking's domain. They would risk their lives if they could help even though they knew very few of them if any could. 


End file.
